Putin seeks consolidation of Assad and opposition efforts to combat terror in Syria

Sept 15 2015

Interfax

Interfax

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for combining the efforts of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Syria's opposition to crack down on terrorism in that country.

Vladimir Putin. Source: Kremlin.ru

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for combining the efforts of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Syria's opposition to crack down on terrorism in that country.

"Today there is a need to consolidate the efforts of both the Syrian government, Kurdish militias, the so-called moderate opposition and other countries of the region to counter the threat facing the very statehood of Syria and fight against terrorism," Putin told a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization's Foreign Ministers Council in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Sept.15.

"We will be able to resolve this problem by acting all together, through joint efforts," the president said.

"Obviously, it will be impossible to drive the terrorists out of this country and the region as a whole without the active involvement of the Syrian authorities and the military, without the Syrian army's involvement on this territory in the fight against Islamic State, as the military say," Putin said.

The Russian president believes that without such assistance, "it will be impossible to protect the multinational and multi-faith Syrian people from elimination, enslavement and barbarity."